Ice and Heat

The Gateing Theory of Pain also probably explains why ice and heat both seem to reduce pain. They are often called "therapies," but I never use them because they only work during the time period that they are physically being applied. The minute the heat or cold leaves, the pain returns. I tend to like my method of going to the source of pain and eliminating it rather than masking it. For the most part, if you have an actual disc problem, it would be impossible to expect the temperature change at the skin level to have any effect on structures deeper in the disc realm of the spine.

This does not deny that when a piece of ice is rubbed on your back that the disc pain won't go away temporarily, because it does. Sometimes, if the pain is extremely severe, this is not an unreasonable alternative so long as you are willing to sustain the ice touching your skin, getting you wet, and you accept the fact that when you stop rubbing with ice the pain will return. However, if you have been out of pain for the minutes to hours that the ice or heat was applied, at least you did get some relief during the most severe component of the episode, which in some cases, can be a great relief.

Further Reading

Introduction
TENS (Transcutaneous Electrucal Nerve Stimulation)
Ice and Heat
Acupuncture
Trigger Point Point Injections
Epidural Steroid / Aneshetic Injections
Chemonucleolysis
Surgery
Percutaneous Diskectomy
Microdiskectomy
Laminectomy
Artificial Discs
Fusion

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